Tag: Newsweek

8/16/18--For decades, marijuana legalization was a nonstarter in Washington, and particularly in Republican politics. The party considered cannabis a dangerous gateway drug, but as state experimentation with legalization grew, media coverage of marijuana’s supposed health benefits increased, and public opinion and demographics shifted, Republicans—some of whom had touted their hard-line stances as unalterable—began to soften. Read

3/8/18--Addiction psychiatrist Dr. Harold Urschel from Texas spoke with the Oklahoma Medical Board about the dangers of marijuana. However, his claim that marijuana lowers IQ seems to be debatable. For every study that suggests that marijuana lowers your IQ, there are several that show the opposite. The most recent of these, a twin study from 2016, studied the effects of marijuana on the IQ of identical twins, one of which was a habitual user and the other was not, over the course of 10 years. The conclusion was that there was absolutely no measurable link between marijuana use and lower IQ, Science Magazine reported. Read

12/9/17--One province in Canada has decided to sell its marijuana in liquor stores. Nova Scotia, a province on Canada’s eastern shore, announced on Thursday that the Nova Scotia Liquor Corp., its sole alcohol distributor, would sell the drug in its stores and on its website once Canada legalizes weed in July of next year. Read

12/8/17--Raphael Mechoulam started his first marijuana project by walking into a police station and asking for some confiscated weed—for research purposes. Decades later, the 87-year-old Israeli chemist is known widely as the “father of marijuana research,” after he used those 5 kilos to discover THC (marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient) in the 1960s, and then later discovered the structure of CBD. Read

10/19/17--A new study, published by Manchester Metropolitan University in the U.K., reports high-potency pot is causing psychiatric issues, including addiction and memory problems. New strains of the recreational drug have higher levels of the active chemical and not enough of another compound that keeps the drug safe. Apparently, the riskiest pot is coming from the black market, which could be an argument for expanding legalization. Read

10/2/17--Colorado lawmakers hope to make getting high less appealing by banning animal, people, and fruit-shaped gummies. House Bill 16-1436 went into effect this weekend, prohibiting the sale of specific candy in an effort to make them less appealing to children. ABC News reports that state lawmakers decided to ban the shapes because even adults had a difficult time differentiating between regular and weed gummies at a meeting to discuss the issue. Read

4/3/17--The inability to apply for tax breaks, and the lack of banking options for weed workers could change if a group of lawmakers can get a package of newly introduced bills passed, which would require the federal government to regulate the marijuana industry in the same manner as the alcohol and tobacco industries. Under the Marijuana Revenue and Regulation Act, the measures would prevent marijuana businesses from being punished for federal crimes and penalties regarding sale of the plant in legal states. Read

The Marijuana Report Website and The Marijuana Report E-Newsletter
are published by National Families in Action.